Sears adds 'Moneyball' figure to board

Sabermetrics for Sears? Perhaps a bit of statistical baseball wisdom will help the retailer get its stock price back on track.

Sears Holdings Corp. today announced the election of Paul DePodesta, vice president of player development and amateur scouting for the New York Mets, to its board of directors.

You might not recognize the name as a character from the movie "Moneyball" (neither he nor his likeness was in it), but the former assistant to Billy Beane was one of a few real people who formed "Peter Brand," Jonah Hill's economic whiz character from the film.

The Harvard graduate was a centerpiece of the Michael Lewis book on which the movie was based, focusing on his tenure with the Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics. He later was general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and has worked with the Mets since 2006.

"We are pleased to add the strong analytical skills and talent assessment acumen of Paul DePodesta to our board of directors," Sears Chairman Edward Lampert said in a statement. "Mr. DePodesta's ability to scrutinize data and use it to assess talent and drive execution makes him ideally suited to join our board."

His most notable move with the Dodgers was trading catcher and Dodgers staple Paul Lo Duca along with Guillermo Mota and Juan Encarnacion to the Florida Marlins for pitchers Brad Penny and Bill Murphy and first baseman (and former Cub) Hee-Seop Choi, a trade that did not pan out as the team had hoped.